


Cold Leftovers

by Tassos



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Community: fandom_stocking, Gen, Missing Scene, Spoilers-Southern Raiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-07
Updated: 2011-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-14 12:09:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tassos/pseuds/Tassos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katara and Zuko stop for the night on the way back.  A conversation by firelight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Leftovers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ailelie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailelie/gifts).



Katara watched Zuko start the fire that night. She sat on the ground, empty like a shell whose crab-snail had abandoned it. All her rage seemed to have been washed away with the rain and all that was left was a little girl who still missed her mother.

Zuko lay the sticks in a circle then bent the fire to life. He kept quiet and snuck looks at Katara through his hair. Katara didn’t say anything; she had nothing to say either. He wandered off again, gathering more firewood but Katara ignored him and watched the flickering light. Thoughts of her mom and dad, and even Sokka as he’d been as a boy twisted in the flames. How different everything had been. How different everything was now. It was almost crazy to think that the three such different lives were all hers.

Zuko sat down beside her. Not too close, but Katara could hit him if she wanted to. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“For what?” Katara’s voice was flat to her own ears. “You didn’t kill my mother.”

“I—”

“You can’t bring her back.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zuko’s head drop, his hair obscuring his face. “I know.”

“Would you have done it? Killed the man who killed your mother?” A stick cracked and popped in the fire.

Zuko didn’t answer right away. Katara thought about what Aang said about forgiveness. She didn’t forgive Yon Rha but she seeing him in the rain, she couldn’t kill him either.

“I think,” said Zuko slowly, “that I would have once. Maybe not now. But I can’t anyway, it’s not my destiny.” Katara did look over then and was surprised that Zuko was looking back. “It’s Aang’s,” he said.

Those two words said everything. Katara couldn’t even imagine what having that bit of knowledge must be like. Quietly she reached over and took Zuko’s hand. “I’m sorry.”


End file.
